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Cards

Source: vignettes/cards/index.Rmd
index.Rmd

Cards are a common organizing unit for modern user interfaces (UI). At their core, they’re just rectangular containers with borders and padding. However, when utilized properly to group related information, they help users better digest, engage, and navigate through content. This is why most successful dashboard/UI frameworks make cards a core feature of their component library. This article provides an overview of the API that bslib provides to create Bootstrap cards.

Setup code

To demonstrate that bslib cards work outside of Shiny (i.e., in R Markdown, static HTML, etc), we’ll make repeated use of statically rendered htmlwidgets like plotly and leaflet. Here’s some code to create those widgets:

library(bslib)
library(shiny)
library(htmltools)
library(plotly)
library(leaflet)

plotly_widget <- plot_ly(x = diamonds$cut) %>%
  config(displayModeBar = FALSE) %>%
  layout(margin = list(t = 0, b = 0, l = 0, r = 0))

leaflet_widget <- leafletOptions(attributionControl = FALSE) %>%
  leaflet(options = .) %>%
  addTiles()

Shiny usage

Cards work equally well in Shiny. In the examples below, replace plotly_widget with plotlyOutput() and leaflet_widget with leafletOutput() to adapt them for Shiny server-rendered plots/maps.

Hello card()

A card() is designed to handle any number of “known” card items (e.g., card_header(), card_body(), etc) as unnamed arguments (i.e., children). As we’ll see shortly, card() also has some useful named arguments (e.g., full_screen, height, etc).

At their core, card() and card items are just an HTML div() with a special Bootstrap class, so you can use Bootstrap’s utility classes to customize things like colors, text, borders, etc.

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  card_body(
    markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com)")
  )
)
A header

Some text with a link

Implicit card_body()

If you find yourself using card_body() without changing any of its defaults, consider dropping it altogether since any direct children of card() that aren’t “known” card() items, are wrapped together into an implicit card_body() call.1 For example, the code to the right generates HTML that is identical to the previous example:

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com).")
)
A header

Some text with a link.

Restricting growth

By default, a card()’s size grows to accommodate the size of it’s contents. Thus, if a card_body() contains a large amount of text, tables, etc., you may want to specify a height or max_height. That said, when laying out multiple cards, it’s likely best not to specify height on the card(), and instead, let the layout determine the height layout_column_wrap().

Although scrolling is convenient for reducing the amount of space required to park lots of content, it can also be a nuisance to the user. To help reduce the need for scrolling, consider pairing scrolling with full_screen = TRUE (which adds an icon to expand the card’s size to the browser window). Notice how, when the card is expanded to full-screen, max_height/height won’t effect the full-screen size of the card.

card(
  max_height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "A long, scrolling, description"
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)
A long, scrolling, description

Consectetur magna iaculis dignissim curae himenaeos enim, elementum a, quis hac commodo senectus. Morbi commodo nulla tortor habitasse donec mus; tempor vehicula dictum luctus accumsan ultricies. Habitasse ultricies cum gravida, donec aenean placerat enim; sagittis dui mollis. Odio quisque ac integer interdum facilisis aptent tempor turpis volutpat consequat platea! Commodo bibendum mollis elementum.

Lorem in arcu cursus, mollis nullam eleifend viverra porta lacinia, cras facilisi lectus. Tincidunt euismod cubilia tellus aenean nascetur mi sem luctus! Ante lectus nostra mauris arcu auctor metus dictumst, class taciti primis tristique. Justo curae laoreet pharetra ligula viverra morbi consequat erat cubilia sociosqu cubilia parturient arcu massa? Himenaeos tempus consequat venenatis facilisi eros.

Adipiscing tincidunt phasellus arcu libero tempor eros mauris rhoncus, mollis, imperdiet ante habitant? Aptent arcu dictum per erat iaculis placerat vel! Tempor condimentum penatibus velit inceptos curae tincidunt ornare leo torquent tellus bibendum sed integer nulla. Senectus habitant etiam mattis, id mi hendrerit velit neque sem litora. Orci dui auctor vivamus augue auctor sodales libero nulla magna.

Expand

Filling outputs

A card()’s default behavior is optimized for facilitating filling layouts. More specifically, if a fill item (e.g., plotly_widget), appears as a direct child of a card_body(), it resizes to fit the card()s specified height. This means, by specifying height = 250 we’ve effectively shrunk the plot’s height from its default of 400 down to about 200 pixels. And, when expanded to full_screen, the plot grows to match the card()’s new size.

card(
  height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling plot"),
  card_body(plotly_widget)
)
A filling plot
Expand

Most htmlwidgets (e.g., plotly, leaflet, etc) and some other Shiny output bindings (e.g, plotOutput(), imageOutput(), etc) are fill items by default, so this behavior “just works” in those scenarios. And, in some of these situations, it’s helpful to remove card_body()’s padding, which can be done via spacing & alignment utility classes.

card(
  height = 275,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling map"),
  card_body(
    class = "p-0",
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  card_footer(
    class = "fs-6",
    "Copyright 2023 RStudio, PBC"
  )
)
A filling map
Copyright 2023 RStudio, PBC
Expand

Fill item(s) aren’t limited in how much they grow and shrink, which can be problematic when a card becomes very small. To work around this, consider adding a min_height on the card_body() container. For example, try using the handle on the lower-right portion of this card example to make the card taller/smaller.

This interactive example is a bit contrived in that we’re using CSS resize to demonstrate how to make plots that don’t shrink beyond a certain point, but this concept becomes quite useful when implementing page-level filling layouts (i.e., page_fillable()) with multiple cards.

card(
  height = 300,
  style = "resize:vertical;",
  card_header("Plots that grow but don't shrink"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 250,
    plotly_widget,
    plotly_widget
  )
)
Plots that grow but don't shrink

Troubleshooting fill

As you’ll learn more about in filling layouts, a fill item loses its ability to fill when wrapped in additional UI element that isn’t a fillable container. To fix the situation, use as_fill_carrier() to allow the additional element to carry the potential to fill from the card_body() down to the fill item.

Multiple card_body()

A card() can have multiple card_body()s, which is especially useful for:

  1. Combining both resizable and non-resizable contents (i.e., fill items and non-fill).
  2. Allowing each card_body() to have their own styling (via inline styles and/or utility classes) and resizing limits (e.g., min_height).

For example, when pairing filling output with scrolling content, you may want min_height on the filling output since the scrolling content will force it to shrink:

card(
  height = 375,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, scrolling description"
  ),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    plotly_widget
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "lead container",
    lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 10, sentences = 5)
  )
)
Filling plot, scrolling description

Lorem erat cubilia etiam, accumsan platea, vivamus varius proin orci proin. Aliquam vel proin dictumst sociosqu, ridiculus odio pulvinar integer – vivamus ullamcorper vivamus. Quisque parturient nunc id class taciti ultrices odio, nam lacinia fusce libero? Vitae congue facilisis aenean tempor per vulputate, elementum fringilla orci vehicula dis? Rhoncus luctus.

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Adipiscing eleifend magnis, egestas nec cubilia elementum velit nec magnis consequat. Blandit massa in suspendisse euismod ad: litora cum justo luctus tellus. Sagittis ligula consequat molestie et interdum nec phasellus habitant. Commodo sociosqu dui sapien eleifend a condimentum ultrices duis. Nibh integer nibh velit tristique suscipit nascetur ac: porta montes quisque aptent platea cursus odio.

Dolor vehicula sociis vestibulum erat lacinia curae pellentesque – sed a inceptos? Tortor netus feugiat enim erat, arcu urna dictumst sollicitudin. Nascetur habitant nostra curae pretium eu. Posuere sollicitudin massa libero, porttitor gravida etiam. Montes pulvinar integer mus molestie, nostra dignissim, per ridiculus praesent metus nostra vivamus magna placerat senectus venenatis quam elementum.

Amet varius mus, orci rutrum aptent felis natoque risus risus! Fusce pretium ad duis nascetur tempor placerat eget, facilisi hendrerit cum? Molestie iaculis porttitor mi luctus, feugiat curabitur fames aliquet. Commodo lectus nascetur nostra nostra elementum placerat taciti nulla erat ultrices? Laoreet urna ligula facilisi sagittis sociis nullam montes.

Consectetur placerat nulla aliquet id egestas habitant mi bibendum massa faucibus magna, netus venenatis arcu. Condimentum risus neque in parturient malesuada donec fringilla. Sociosqu augue fermentum, torquent pulvinar volutpat, curae consequat, ullamcorper montes porta fringilla porta tristique. Vel lacus platea quisque pretium non ligula mus facilisi. Lobortis?

Amet congue maecenas per arcu ligula elementum ut? Venenatis vulputate a eu: potenti varius arcu curabitur, massa risus. Lobortis conubia leo non pulvinar lacus conubia. Netus arcu at tempus sollicitudin lobortis enim ultrices facilisi nullam praesent dignissim. Massa nibh taciti dapibus vivamus nisl augue nibh turpis ridiculus habitasse conubia phasellus turpis non.

Ipsum lacus libero orci pretium mattis tempor proin rhoncus tortor, conubia maecenas elementum. Nec leo iaculis inceptos nam: tortor tristique mauris velit litora. Volutpat auctor augue mattis curabitur, parturient tristique nisi gravida curae. Ac tellus molestie donec et class bibendum, dui faucibus ornare malesuada mattis dictumst cubilia. Na cubilia.

Elit magnis morbi nisl eget ultrices morbi himenaeos accumsan, iaculis quis sociosqu. Venenatis pellentesque lacus integer, mi maecenas fames mauris! Consequat tincidunt cras, nascetur; a mauris facilisis in pellentesque fringilla et facilisi. A egestas senectus lacus auctor suscipit? Egestas fames parturient etiam per, netus cras in diam vivamus mi lobortis habitant hendrerit.

Elit litora – blandit ornare felis odio placerat metus ante. Vitae lobortis, sodales posuere facilisi, aliquam scelerisque per mollis integer? Penatibus scelerisque purus, porta praesent mollis aliquam nunc mattis magnis. Velit ultricies sociis faucibus natoque imperdiet, natoque lacinia: diam platea aliquam porttitor? Magnis cursus lacus netus quis platea, tortor ante vitae feugiat, sagittis hendrerit ullamcorper!

Expand

Also, when the content has a fixed size, and should not be allowed to scroll, set fill = FALSE:

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, short description"
  ),
  plotly_widget,
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE,
    card_title("A subtitle"),
    p(class = "text-muted", "And a caption")
  )
)
Filling plot, short description
A subtitle

And a caption

Expand

Multiple columns

As you’ll learn in column-based layouts, layout_column_wrap() is great for multi-column layouts that are responsive and accommodate for filling output. Here we have an equal-width 2-column layout using width = 1/2, but it’s also possible to have varying column widths.

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A multi-column filling layout"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    layout_column_wrap(
      width = 1/2,
      plotOutput("p1"),
      plotOutput("p2")
    )
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)
A multi-column filling layout

Dolor duis, ac praesent nam himenaeos dictum cras etiam metus. Vulputate potenti odio hendrerit morbi conubia. Leo sed blandit risus at, eros tempor laoreet montes! Imperdiet felis porta lectus lacinia libero conubia ullamcorper. Turpis senectus mi, id ad mauris dui aptent congue risus.

Ipsum proin dictum quam lacinia nisl, vehicula per fames. Sapien inceptos curabitur scelerisque natoque – sollicitudin quisque dis nibh. Platea iaculis at nullam fames sodales nisi nascetur nec! A parturient duis ultrices, accumsan cursus varius sed pulvinar. Na pulvinar!

Lorem tellus nisi, accumsan taciti lectus porttitor metus sociosqu. Magnis torquent imperdiet orci mi cursus porttitor condimentum class. Congue potenti varius cursus per posuere morbi feugiat? Sociis fusce quisque quis faucibus conubia, volutpat nullam litora. Cras et sociosqu pharetra euismod: magna mattis lacinia eleifend a ut.

Expand

Multiple cards

layout_column_wrap() is especially nice for laying out multiple cards since each card in a particular row will have the same height (by default). Learn more in column-based layouts.

layout_column_wrap(
  width = 1/2,
  height = 300,
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling plot"), plotly_widget),
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling map"), card_body(class = "p-0", leaflet_widget))
)
A filling plot
Expand
A filling map
Expand

Multiple tabs

navset_card_tab() and navset_card_pill() make it possible to create cards with multiple tabs or pills. These functions have the same full_screen capabilities as normal card()s as well some other options like title (since there is no natural place for a card_header() to be used). Note that, each nav_panel() object is similar to a card(). That is, if the direct children aren’t already card items (e.g., card_title()), they get implicitly wrapped in a card_body().

library(leaflet)
navset_card_tab(
  height = 450,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  title = "HTML Widgets",
  nav_panel(
    "Plotly",
    card_title("A plotly plot"),
    plotly_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    "Leaflet",
    card_title("A leaflet plot"),
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    shiny::icon("circle-info"),
    markdown("Learn more about [htmlwidgets](http://www.htmlwidgets.org/)")
  )
)
HTML Widgets
  • Plotly
  • Leaflet
A plotly plot
A leaflet plot

Learn more about htmlwidgets

Expand

Sidebars

As you’ll learn more about in sidebar layouts, layout_sidebar() just works when placed inside in a card(). In this case, if you want fill items (e.g., plotly_widget) to still fill the card like we’ve seen before, you’ll need to set fillable = TRUE in layout_sidebar().

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A sidebar layout inside a card"),
  layout_sidebar(
    fillable = TRUE,
    sidebar = sidebar(
      actionButton("btn", "A button")
    ),
    plotly_widget
  )
)
A sidebar layout inside a card
Expand

Static images

card_image() makes it easy to embed static (i.e., pre-generated) images into a card. Provide a URL to href to make it clickable. In the case of multiple card_image()s, consider laying them out in multiple cards with layout_column_wrap() to produce a grid of clickable thumbnails.

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_image(
    file = "shiny-hex.svg",
    href = "https://github.com/rstudio/shiny"
  ),
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE,
    card_title("Shiny for R"),
    p(
      class = "fw-light text-muted",
      "Brought to you by RStudio."
    )
  )
)
Shiny for R

Brought to you by RStudio.

Expand

Flexbox

Both card() and card_body() default to fillable = TRUE (that is, they are CSS flexbox containers), which works wonders for facilitating filling outputs, but it also leads to surprising behavior with inline tags (e.g., actionButton(), span(), strings, etc). Specifically, each inline tag is placed on a new line, but in a “normal” layout flow (fillable = FALSE), inline tags render inline.

card(
  card_body(
    fillable = TRUE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn1", "A button")
  ),
  card_body(
    fillable = FALSE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn2", "A button")
  )
)
Here's some inline text
Here's some inline text

That said, sometimes working in a flexbox layout is quite useful, even when working with inline tags. Here we leverage flexbox’s gap property to control the spacing between a plot, a (full-width) button, and paragraph. Note that, by using markdown() for the paragraph, it wraps the results in a <p> tag, which means the contents of the paragraph are not longer subject to flexbox layout. If we wanted, we could do something similar to render the actionButton() inline by wrapping it in a div().

card(
  height = 325, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A plot with an action links"),
  card_body(
    class = "gap-2 container",
    plotly_widget,
    actionButton(
      "go_btn", "Action button",
      class = "btn-primary rounded-0"
    ),
    markdown("Here's a _simple_ [hyperlink](https://www.google.com/).")
  )
)
A plot with an action links

Here's a simple hyperlink.

Expand

In addition to gap, flexbox has really nice ways of handling otherwise difficult spacing and alignment issues. And, thanks to Bootstrap’s flex utility classes, we can easily opt-in and customize defaults.

card(
  height = 300, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    class = "d-flex justify-content-between",
    "Centered plot",
    checkboxInput("check", " Check me", TRUE)
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "align-items-center",
    plotOutput("id", width = "75%")
  )
)
Centered plot
Expand

Shiny

Since this article is statically rendered, the examples here use statically rendered content/widgets, but the same card() functionality works for dynamically rendered content via Shiny (e.g., plotOutput(), plotlyOutput(), etc).

An additional benefit that comes with using shiny is the ability to use getCurrentOutputInfo() to render new/different content when the output container becomes large enough, which is particularly useful with card(full_screen = T, ...). For example, you may want additional captions/labels when a plot is large, additional controls on a table, etc (see the value boxes article for a clever use of this).

# UI logic
ui <- page_fluid(
  card(
    max_height = 200,
    full_screen = TRUE,
    card_header("A dynamically rendered plot"),
    plotOutput("plot_id")
  )
)

# Server logic
server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$plot_id <- renderPlot({
    info <- getCurrentOutputInfo()
    if (info$height() > 600) {
      # code for "large" plot
    } else {
      # code for "small" plot
    }
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Appendix

The following CSS is used to give plotOutput() a background color; it’s necessary here because this documentation page is not actually hooked up to a Shiny app, so we can’t show a real plot.

.shiny-plot-output {
  background-color: #216B7288;
  height: 400px;
  width: 100%;
}

On this page

Developed by Carson Sievert, Joe Cheng, Garrick Aden-Buie, Posit Software, PBC.

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